Jan Ciechanowski collection Kolekcja Jana Ciechanowskiego (Kol. 82)

Copyright Holder: Instytut Polski i Muzeum im. Gen. Sikorskiego w Londynie Contains correspondence and other documents of the Polish Embassy in the USA, 1939-1945. Includes records relating to aid for refugees from USSR, relations with the USSR, arresting of the staff of the Polish Embassy in USSR, help rendered by the USA to the USSR, the conference Churchill-Roosevelt, U.S. attitude toward the war, policy of FDR towards Poland, the Ambassador’s reports to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, evacuation of Polish children from USSR, denouncing Polish Citizens to Germans by the Vichy Government, Jewish affairs: mass extermination of Jews in the German occupied Poland, persecution of Jews and their life conditions in occupied Poland, worsening of the Polish –Soviet relations, the arrest officials of the Polish Embassy in USSR, breaking relations of the Soviet government with Poland, the United Nations conference on relief, the Soviet policy in Europe (1944), press releases regarding fights of the Polish Home Army In Warsaw (The Warsaw Uprising), August 08, 1944, relief for Poland during the Warsaw Uprising, publications relating to extermination of Jews in German occupied Poland, and other Jewish matters, etc. Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie (Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile) was established after Germany and the Soviet Union occupied Poland in September 1939. The Polish government-in-exile was first based in Paris, but moved to London after the French army surrendered to the Germans in the mid-1940s. The Allied powers accepted the government-in-exile as the legitimate representative of the Polish people soon after it was created. The Polish government allied itself with the Allied powers, as its members believed that only a total military victory over Germany would restore Poland's independence and freedom. The government-in-exile led the Polish war effort throughout World War II, and amassed its own land, air, and naval forces. In addition, it commanded the largest underground army of the war, the Armia Krajowa (the Polish Home Army). In 1942, reports about the mass murder of Jews in Poland reached London. At that point, the Polish government-in-exile made several public declarations on the subject, and officially demanded that the Allied powers stop the Germans from continuing their campaign to murder Jews, and other individuals they deemed undesirable. From December 1942 onward, the government-in-exile backed the rescue work of Zegota, which offered aid to Jews throughout occupied Poland.